ROVER’S DIARY: The myth of the ideology of Pakistan —Babar Ayaz
Nowhere in history was Islamic ideology of Pakistan mentioned, it was always the political, social, economic rights of the Muslims
Moments of rejoicing in this country are few and far between. While the democrats are rejoicing that for the first time a smooth transfer of power is in sight through free and fair elections, their spirits are dampened by the holy warriors of the country. This time around for the forthcoming elections no General Hamid Gul, General Aslam Beg or Mahmud Durrani is needed to engineer the defeat of the left-of-centre political parties by supporting formation of the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI).
The Taliban have threatened Pakistan People’s Party, Awami National Party and Muttahida Qaumi Mahaz that their candidates and election rallies would be attacked. This gives an advantage to the right-of-centre political parties like Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, various factions of Pakistan Muslim League, Jamaat-e-Islami and other religious parties over the parties under threat from the Taliban and their associated militant groups.
The kind of questions asked by some returning officers (RO), supported by a section of the media, shows that the Taliban mindset is not limited to the militant groups only. While now the Lahore High Court has instructed the returning officers that they should not be asking irrelevant questions, they had already rejected papers of some candidates for their lack of knowledge about the Quranic verses or history. Will the ECP, which has just woken up, reverse rejections by the ROs when the candidates appeal remains to be seen.
Categories: Asia